To Sleep or Not to Sleep
by TheUnwantedDaughterofArtemis
Summary: RE:Afterlife in the prison. Claire has trouble sleeping so she goes to Alice's cell. While there fears will be faced, thoughts provoked, and if their lucky they might even sleep a little. Alice point of view. Claire's will come later. Two-shot. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**This takes place in the prison during _Afterlife_. This is during their first night there. They might be out of character so sorry for that. Mentions _Extinction_ in passing. First _Resident Evil _story. Enjoy.**

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Since the outbreak in Raccoon City I've been a light sleeper so it wasn't all that surprising when I woke up from the soft "click" of someone unlocking my cell. Then I heard the light footsteps of someone entering my "room". It was really just a cell that, like all the other cells, overlooked the mess hall of the prison. Judging from the footsteps the person was female. Men footsteps were different; it would be hard to explain. That meant the either Crystal or Claire were the ones entering my cell.

I cracked my eyes open a little and let them adjusted to the darkness and as the footsteps come to a stop next to my cot.

Whoever it was took a deep breath and let it out shakily. I waited and was awarded for my patience.

"Alice?" Claire whispered.

Slowly I turned over so that I was on my right side facing her.

"Yeah?" I answer.

"Do you, uh, mind if I sleep here with you?" she hesitantly asked.

I feel my eyes widen and my heart rate start to go up. I quietly took a deep breath and let it out. I can see Claire wringing her hands and hear her shifting her feet. I smirk and shift backwards until my back touches the wall. I hear her sigh in relief as she climbs into the cot and settles in. The cots aren't big so the both of us had to be close in order to fit on the cot.

Out of an old habit I drape my arm over her waist and felt her stiffen under it. Slowly she relaxed and scoots back into me and I hear her almost inaudible sigh of content. I smile and chuckle softly. Apparently Claire heard me though.

"What's so funny?" she asked turning over to face me.

"When we were with the convoy we used to sleep like this in the back of your hummer. We'd normally get up early so that K-Mart wouldn't find out but one time we accidently slept in. K-Mart woke up and found us like this and started to squeal from excitement." I explain and chuckle again at the memory.

"That would explain it." Claire chuckles softly.

"Explain what?" I ask hopefully.

"My memory has been coming back bit by bit but nothing I could really understand. Something I do remember is us in the back of the hummer like you said but…" Claire looked away from me then.

"But what?" I ask moving my hand from her waist and gently placing it under her chin, making her look at me.

She sighed and scooted forward, snuggling into me. I turned so that I was on my back and her head rested on my chest. She wrapped her arms around me and I started stroking her hair.

"I can't remember her, K-Mart. I… I know she was important to me. I can feel it, but I don't remember what she looks like or her voice and…what if I never fully remember? What if I only remember parts of things and never know the full picture."

Claire was panicking; I could hear it in her voice. I turned so that I was facing her and pulled her closer. I wrapped my arms around her tightly, as if by doing that I could keep all the horrible things that were going on at bay. I knew that wasn't possible even if I had my powers, it just couldn't be done. No matter how hard I pushed, the world would just push back that much harder. I remembered a quote from a movie I once saw: "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object?"

The answer to that question was: chaos. Chaos breaks out and nothing can stop it. I guess I would be the unmovable object. No matter what Umbrella threw at me I would always come out on top, but no matter how hard I fought it Umbrella would just keep finding ways to make things worse, making them the unstoppable force. That's how things would always be and I just had to resign myself to that fact.

While I had my internal debate, Claire had fallen asleep. Her breathing was even and peaceful. I almost chuckled at my choice of words.

I sighed and loosened my hold on Claire, but still keeping my arms around her. I might as well get some sleep. Tomorrow I have to figure out how I'm going to get everyone out of this prison alive.

Maybe we should give the guy in the cell a chance. Then again he could just be using us to get out. My instincts say we should and from what I've experienced, my instincts are normally right. I thought about how Wendell said he heard movement in the walls.

Could the zombies claw through the cement of a prison? They can't feel pain so they wouldn't care about hurting themselves.

What about Arcadia? Why did the transmissions stop all of a sudden? What happened to K-Mart and the other survivors from the desert?

While in the desert, K-Mart had been like a beacon of hope. Even though the world around was barren and trying to kill them, she still kept a smile on her face and a bounce in her step.

I'll admit that in the short time that I'd known her I had definitely grown attached to her. I knew Claire saw K-Mart as a daughter and K-Mart saw Claire a mother or big sister. K-Mart had told me once that she wouldn't mind having two moms. If Umbrella had done anything to K-Mart I didn't care if I died I would kill every last one of them.

And on that happy note I shut down all my thoughts and focused on going to sleep.

Yawning I shifted around making myself comfortable and finally falling asleep hearing only the sound of me and Claire's breathing.

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**Hope you enjoyed it. Yeah I had a Batman reference in there, hope you didn't mind. If you guys have any suggestions, tips-or-tricks, or knock-knock jokes all are welcomed in the comments. **

**~TheUnwantedDaughterofArtemis~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2 of TO Sleep or Not To Sleep. I finished writing this around 2:42 in the morning so if there are mistakes please bear with me. As always i hope you enjoy the chapter.**

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_I was in a desert and it was dark. There were vehicles in a semicircle with groups of people sitting around talking and joking. I was sitting on top of a hummer keeping watch. It was one of those rare moments when there wasn't anything to worry about. We had just hit the jackpot for gas and food. It had been a bunch of abandoned cars filled with gas near a motel that had an entire closet filled with non-perishable food._

_I was thinking about what Arcadia might be like when I heard the clicking of someone climbing onto the hummer. Looking over I saw that it was Alice. She sat down next to me and leaned forward resting her arms on her thighs. The two of us sat there for a little while just enjoying each other's company._

_That was the thing about Alice. A silence between us wasn't awkward…it was comfortable, like we were just drinking in the fact that the other was there. Essentially that was exactly what we were doing. Silently thanking whoever was looking over us for not separating each other. _

_Alice and I had been secretly seeing each other for a while now. It's not that I was embarrassed about the fact that we were dating. I just didn't want the convoy to think that I was slacking off. I always put the convoy before myself. They were my family and I could barely stomach the thought of letting harm come to them. _

_I felt Alice's hand on my shoulder. I looked over at her and as soon as our eyes met I could feel all the stress slipping out of my body. I relaxed my shoulders and gave her a small smile that she returned. She took her hand off of my shoulder and I immediately missed the comfort it gave me. _

"_What were you thinking?" she quietly asks._

"_Arcadia, the convoy…us." I answered just as quietly._

_She just nodded and gave another small smile before turning and staring at something in front of her. I followed her gaze and saw K-Mart waving in the distance at us. I didn't bother hiding my smile as I waved back at her. From where I was I couldn't really see her but I just chalked it up to it being so dark. _

"_Claire?" _

_I looked over to see Alice wearing a look of concentration that told me what she was going to say next was extremely important to her. _

"_Yes?" I asked waiting for her speak._

"_Could you follow me real quick?" she asked before climbing down off the hummer. _

_I followed her to the food truck where she climbed in and sat down. I sat on the edge of the back of the truck with one leg straight and the other curled under it. I leaned back so I was resting against the van wall. _

_After settling in I looked at Alice and waited for her to speak. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath._

"_If Arcadia is real and there really isn't any infection, would you want to settle down with me?"_

_I was in shock. Even though we were dating she had always been hesitant with how far we went. It always seemed like at any moment she was ready to pack up and run. I knew for her to actually want to settle down it meant she was serious about us. _

_I realized I had been silent for a while and judging by her expression she thought I was gonna say no. So to reassure her I got up and sat down on her lap, wrapping my arms around her neck and resting my forehead against hers. She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me closer while I closed the distance between ours lips. _

_At first the kiss was slow and loving, but it quickly turned passionate. By that point we were already explore each other's mouths and bodies. I broke the kiss off and got up to lead her to the hummer. Tonight K-Mart would be sleeping with Betty in the bus with the kids, so we had the hummer to ourselves. _

_It wouldn't be suspicious that Alice was coming with me to the hummer since nobody else really wanted to share a vehicle with her and K-Mart had insisted that she stay with us. We climbed into the hummer and locked the doors and windows. After that clothing was taken off, but before anything could really happen the scene changed._

_It was so dark that I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I looked around hoping to find some indication to where I was, but there was nothing. I was trying to figure out what to do when I heard it._

_It was the familiar sound of zombies moaning. I quickly turned around and came face to face with dozens of zombies that instinctually I knew were people that I considered my loved ones. One in particular I could tell was supposed to be K-Mart. It wasn't the fact that I was suffering from memory loss that made it so I wasn't able to be 100% sure. _

_It was the fact that she was missing a face._

_They all were._

_Despite that I could still hear them moaning and growling. I was frozen in fear and the surrounded me. Their moans and growls increasing in volume as they began scratching and tearing at my clothes and skin._

I woke up with a scream stuck in my throat. I focused on calming my breathing while my eyes adjusted to the dark.

Once my breathing went back to being normal I climbed out of my cot. I had this sudden strong urge to go find Alice. Trusting my gut I walked the relatively short distance to her cell, carefully opening the cell door and walking in. I closed the cell and after a short internal debate I quietly slide the lock into place.

I stepped up to her cot and stopped. I took a deep breath to gather my courage and then softly called out:

"Alice?"

She turned over and for a few seconds I was worried that it'd be like my nightmare and she wouldn't have a face. Thankfully this wasn't a dream and she did have one.

"Yeah?" she called out.

"Do you, uh, mind if I sleep here with you?" I hesitantly asked.

I hear her take a deep breath and I worry that she's gonna say no, but then I hear her scooting back giving me room to climb in. I'm so relieved that I completely ignore the fact that we're so close together… actually let me rephrase that. I don't mind being this close to her, to be honest with myself I actually enjoy it. It makes me feel safe.

I feel the weight of her arm on my waist and I tense up, but then mentally scold myself for reacting like that. Since I'd met her in the airfield she had been nothing but kind and considerate.

Minus the part where she kicked me into a plane and tied me up.

I relax and before I can stop myself I scoot backwards into and let out a sigh of content. I hear Alice chuckle and I turn around to face her and question her about the chuckle.

"When we were with the convoy we used to sleep like this in the back of your hummer. We'd normally get up early so that K-Mart wouldn't find out but one time we accidently slept in. K-Mart woke up and found us like this and started to squeal from excitement." She explains and once again chuckles.

"That would explain it." This time I'm the one that chuckles.

"Explain what?" she asks and I can hear the hope in the question.

"My memory has been coming back bit by bit but nothing I could really understand. Something I do remember is us in the back of the hummer like you said but…" I didn't really want to tell her about the part where we almost made love. I looked away at that point, remembering the nightmare.

"But what?" she asks moving her hand from my waist and gently placing it under my chin, making me look at her.

I sigh and scoot forward, snuggling into her. Alice turned so that she was on her back and my head rested on her chest. I wrapped my arms around her and she started stroking my hair soothingly.

"I can't remember her, K-Mart. I… I know she was important to me. I can feel it, but I don't remember what she looks like or her voice and…what if I never fully remember? What if I only remember parts of things and never know the full picture." I say feeling the panic rising.

Alice turned so that she was facing me and pulled me closer. She wrapped her arms around me tightly, as if by doing that she could keep all the horrible things that were going on at bay, and maybe she could.

I could feel my eye lids getting heavy. I was scared to fall asleep and go through part 2 of the nightmare.

_To sleep or not sleep, that is the question._ I thought to myself. _Alice will wake me up if I have a nightmare. I don't need memories to know that._

With that in mind I drifted off to sleep hoping to have part 2 of that first dream I had.

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**So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed it. Remember if you have any tips, tricks, or knock-knock jokes feel free to leave them in the comments. Let me know if i should do another one. It could be before this one or after, it doesn't really matter. **

**~TheUnwantedDaughterofArtemis~**


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